Hi there, Mr. Barnsley here.

Thank you so much for joining me as I guide you through today's learning.

As we explore "An Inspector Calls," we're gonna be diving deeper into the text here.

This shouldn't be the first time that you have read the text.

You should be coming to this lesson with some prior knowledge of characters and plot.

We're gonna do some revisiting, but we are gonna be digging a lot deeper.

And specifically today, we're gonna be looking at the character of Eva Smith and what she might symbolise.

Really interesting lesson we've got for you today.

You are gonna need a copy of the text.

In today's lesson, we're gonna be looking for some quotations so do make sure you have a copy of the text in front of you.

All right, if you're ready to get started, so am I.

Let's go.

So let's have a look at today's outcome.

By the end of the lesson, you'll be able to understand and explain the symbolism of Eva Smith and also think about how she's constructed through other characters.

So some keywords that we're gonna be looking out for and using.

Well, that first one we could see in the outcome, construct, it's a verb, but it means to create or build an image or understanding of something.

So really important for us to acknowledge that all characters in a text are constructed by the author, the writer, but actually Eva Smith has more layers than this, which we will look at later in the lesson.

Anguish means severe pain, suffering, or distress, and it's often very emotional or mental suffering.

Symbolism is when we use symbols to represent ideas or qualities.

And in today's lesson, we're looking at how the character of Eva is used as a symbol.

The verb to oppress means to treat people or groups unfairly or cruelly, often by limiting their rights, limiting their freedom, limiting their opportunities.

And a paradox is a statement or a situation that seems contradictory or almost impossible, but actually may actually reveal a truth when examined more closely.

So we're gonna be diving into that word in a little bit more detail.

So there are two learning cycles in today's lesson.

We are going to be thinking about Eva as a paradoxical symbol, two of our key words there.

And then we're gonna really analyse how the character of Eva has been constructed, has been created in the text.

So let's start by thinking about Eva as a symbol.

So we can argue it can definitely be seen that Eva Smith is symbolic.

Arguably though, Priestley uses Eva as a symbol of many different things.

We could say that she's a symbol of social inequality.

We could say that a symbol of the oppressed working class, in particular, how working class women were oppressed.

We can also see that she's a symbol of the consequences of neglecting those at the bottom of the social hierarchy.

So yes, she's a symbol, but she can be a symbol for different things.

Now, Priestley uses the Inspector's final speech in Act 3, on page 56 if you have the Heinemann version of the play, to reinforce Eva Smith as a symbol for key themes.

Now I want you to have your text in front of you because we're gonna look through, we're gonna be using this.

So for example, if you want to open your text and find this exact reference, we could say the repetition of millions really emphasises this vast, the vast scale of social inequality.

So it really reinforces this idea that Eva is a symbol of more than just, you know, she's not just representing herself, she is a symbol of the entire working class, who are treated in an inequitable way.

Now, Priestley pairs the names John and Eva and Smith, kind of these kind of more common names, he uses these as a symbol for the collective working class and the oppressions that they face.

And we also see this use of the collective pronoun we.

Okay, so he's pointing the blame not just at the characters, but also we as the audience are kind of brought into this collective blame.

And this continues to kind of position Eva as this symbol of society's failings.

It's not just the failings of individual characters, the Birling family, but as society as a whole.

And of course we, the audience, are part of society as a whole.

Now what's really interesting, what I find so interesting about the character of Eva Smith is despite her being so central to the place, such a central character, she never speaks, she never appears on the stage.

Why has Priestley chosen to keep her completely off stage? A little bit of a hint for this question.

I want you to consider some of those themes of class inequality and invisibility.

Over to you to think about this question.

Pause the video.

If you've got a partner, you can discuss this with them.

Otherwise, you can just think through this independently.

Press Play when you're ready to continue.

I wonder if you've got some really interesting ideas there, particularly around the idea of invisibility.

Let's have a look at what some of our Oak pupils were saying then.

So Jacob.

So Laura, sorry, said that, "Eva's absence makes her a symbol of the powerless." Okay, the fact that we don't see her means that she represents the powerless.

Her story is told through others, and this really highlights how the working class are often unseen, even though their struggles impact society as a whole.

If we think about who are making the rules, making the laws that impact on the working classes, it's very infrequently the working classes, it's the political, the upper classes, the people with power in society.

So Eva's absence, even though we know she's really important, really shows that she's a symbol of the powerless in society.

And Jacob adds that, "Eva Smith never appears because she represents the voiceless." So linking to the powerless, also the voiceless.

"By keeping her off stage, Priestley is highlighting how society often ignores, often forgets those who suffer in silence." To what extent do you agree with them both? Did you have similar ideas when you were discussing? Did you have anything else that you would like to add? Why don't you take a moment to reflect on what you can see on the screen.

If you want to make a note of any of these ideas as well, now's the time to do so.

Pause the video, take a moment to reflect, and press Play when you're ready to continue.

Okay, let's see how we're getting on then.

True or false, Eva narrates her own story throughout "An Inspector Calls"? Is that true or false? And why? Pause video, have a think, and press Play when you've got some ideas.

Yeah, well done if you said that was false.

Why is that false? Well, despite her being so central to the plot and the themes of the play, Eva never speaks or appears on stage.

And that's really, really important, and obviously it is a decision that Priestley has made.

So we need to think about, we need to continue to be thinking about and discussing and analysing why Priestley made that choice.

So, going back to one of the keywords I introduced you to at the beginning of the lesson, Eva Smith can be considered as a paradoxical figure.

Okay, one that doesn't maybe quite make sense, maybe there are some kind of some opposites there.

There are some things associated with Eva that we kind of, you wouldn't necessarily think should go together.

She embodies these contradictions.

An example of this is that she is a present absence.

Okay, we never see her, but her presence is felt throughout the play.

She symbolises how the marginalised are often unseen, but still their struggles are still really significant in society.

But interestingly, Eva is both powerful and powerless.

And I think it's really obvious to us as an audience how Eva is presented as powerless.

We see that she is treat, you know, she's dismissed, she has no opportunity to fight for her job when she's dismissed by Mr. Birling or Sheila has her dismissed from the shop.

We see how she's rejected by Mrs. Birling and how, you know, Gerald so easily takes advantage of her because she has so little power in comparison to him, but also she's such an incredibly powerful individual.

Her story conveys this powerful lesson about social responsibility and societal expectations.

So yes, as an individual she seems powerless, but what we as an audience learn and how Priestley uses her story as a teaching tool and how the Birlings or certainly the younger Birlings themselves learn from her experience, she's actually a really powerful individual.

Again, that's a real paradox, this powerful, powerless individual.

So we know the Inspector describes Eva's death and situation using the following words and phrases: on a slab, anguish, burnt-out, misery, desperate, lonely, agony, hopeless.

Which one of these words is the most affecting to you, and why? These are all quite emotional words, but which ones really stand out to you, and why? What your reactions to these words? Take a moment to just have a think, have a reflect, have a discuss if you've got a partner, and press Play when you've got some ideas.

Welcome back.

I'm sure we all picked different words there, and that's the best thing about literature here is that we can all bring our own interpretations here.

So different words might mean different things to different members of the audience.

But I want you to now start digging a little bit deeper and thinking, "What's Priestley trying to do here? How does he use emotional language to reveal Eva Smith's power over the other characters?" Pause the video, have a think, and press Play when you've got some ideas.

One of our Oak pupils, Andeep, gave this a go and he said, "Priestley uses emotional language to make Eva Smith's suffering really vivid, really clear, and this forces the characters to confront their guilt.

Words like anguish and misery haunt the characters, particularly the younger Birlings.

We see this in their responses such as Eric's, 'God!' and how Sheila is distressed.

These all show Eva's symbolic power despite her absence." Okay, we see this kind of further shows kind of what a symbolically powerful character Eva is, even though we would argue that she was such a powerless individual during her life.

Do you agree with Andeep? Why don't you take a moment now to reflect about whether you agree with Andeep.

Did this match up with some of the discussions or thoughts you were having? And of course, this is always an opportunity for you to note down some of these ideas if you want to remember them.

Pause the video, take a moment to reflect, and press Play when you're ready to continue.

All right, time for us to check to see that we are still understanding we're still following this lesson.

True or false then, Eva Smith is a paradoxical figure because although she's absent from the stage, her presence is central to the play's message about societal inequality? True or false, and why? Pause the video, have a think, and press play when you've got some answers.

Yeah, well done if you said true.

Why might that be true? Well, Eva's absence reflects how the marginalised are unseen, yet her story and her impact make her central to exposing societal inequality and injustice.

She's paradoxical because she's both powerless as a character, she's unseen, she's absent, but at the same time, she is so present and she is so powerful because her story, her fate teaches the characters and the audience so much about societal inequality and injustice.

Well done if got that correct.

All right, over to you then for our first part of the lesson, we're start gonna bring some of our learning together through writing a short paragraph.

So I've given you the start of this paragraph.

Priestley presents Eva Smith as an absent presence, highlighting her as both a powerless victim and a powerful representation of the marginalised working class.

What I would like you to do is complete this paragraph by starting your next sentence with, "In particular." So you're gonna extend this, develop the thinking here, and I want you to use this phrase in particular to dive a little bit deeper.

All right, time for you to pause the video, give this a go, and press Play when you think you are done.

Welcome back.

Really well done to anyone who checked their spelling, punctuation, and grammar before they put their pen down.

That is what we like to see, accuracy at all times.

All right, Alex, one of our Oak pupils, gave this a go and this was his response.

He said, "In particular, Priestley uses Eva Smith's absence to highlight how the working class, especially women, are invisible and voiceless in society.

Paradoxically, her absence makes her presence felt even more deeply, revealing the truth that those marginalised can still expose the deep flaws in the social system." So Alex has got some great ideas here, but I would like you to find some specific evidence from the text that Alex could use to develop his response even further.

So can you get your texts open please? And I want to see if you can find some words, phrases that you could use to help support Alex's point.

Pause the video, take a moment to reflect and find some evidence, and press Play when you're ready to continue.

Welcome back.

Let's look at how Alex could have extended this further.

"In particular, Priestley uses Eva Smith's absence to highlight how the working class, especially women, are invisible and I voiceless in society.

This is emphasised the Inspector's final speech where Priestley's repetition of millions reveals Eva's symbolic purpose.

Paradoxically, her absence makes her presence felt even more deeply, revealing the truth that those marginalised can still expose the deep flaws in the social system." Well done if you had something similar.

This is, of course, just a model answer.

You might have our different ideas as well, and that's absolutely fine.

Okay, time for us to move on to the second learning cycle in today's lesson, and we're gonna start analysing the construction of Eva.

So Sam, one of our Oak pupils, made this comment, "You can't really analyse Eva's character effectively because she doesn't have any lines." What would you say or how might you respond to Sam's comment? Pause the video, have a think, and press Play when you've got some ideas.

Okay, here's how Jun responded, I wonder if you'd have given the same feedback to Sam.

He said, "Well, in order to analyse Eva, you need to examine how other characters describe her and what this reveals about their attitude and societal values.

To understand Eva, we really need to focus on her absence and the Inspector's account, which make her a symbol of the voiceless and the oppressed." Eva is such an important character in this play, I think it's really difficult to analyse the text without seeing Eva as a central character who is deserving of analysis.

Just because she herself doesn't say anything doesn't mean that we can't talk about her, analyse her, and we can both think about how other characters talk about her, but we can also, as we've been doing this lesson, talk about her absence and talk about Priestley's very deliberate decision to construct this character who is only ever spoken about by others, but never seen by the audience.

So, that keyword, that verb to construct, to deliberately create.

So Priestley constructs Eva and her experiences through other characters in "Inspector Calls." Now what I think is so interesting about Eva is all characters are constructs, okay? All characters are constructs, or every single character in any text has been deliberately constructed by the author.

So whenever we think about a character, we always want to be thinking, "Well, why did the author, the playwright in this case, why did Priestley create the characters in this way?" But we've got second layer to Eva because Eva is also constructed by the other characters.

So we not only want to think about why Priestley has created Eva in the way he has, but we also want to think about why the other characters have kind of created Eva or what they tell us about Eva and what that tells us about them.

So two layers of construction here.

Now we know that multiple characters in the play comment on Eva's physical appearance.

So Mr. Birling states she was good-looking and also she was a good worker.

Gerald describes her as young and pretty, and so does Sheila.

So the focus on Eva's appearance and her work ethic could reflect the societal values and attitudes at the time, and they really emphasise how Eva is a victim of these.

However, we could also argue that Priestley uses these descriptions to create a sympathetic character, okay? Arguably, by creating someone who is young and pretty and good-looking and a hard worker, it allows Priestley to evoke greater empathy from the audience.

Perhaps we are more sympathetic to her plight because of this.

So I want you to think then, do you think Eva Smith's character would have the same impact if Priestley presented her differently? Let's imagine she was described as being very plain looking.

Let's imagine she was described as being kind of a lazy worker.

Do you think we'd have responded differently as an audience? Do you think audiences would've responded differently? And if yes, what do you think it might say about the audience's complicity with stereotypical expectations of class and gender do you think? Really tricky question here, but I want you to give it a go.

If you've got a partner or if you're working a small group, discuss with them.

Otherwise, just think through this independently.

Pause the video, have a think, and press Play when you're ready to continue.

Welcome back.

I really wonder if people were saying things like maybe audiences would be slightly less sympathetic if she was described as being lazy rather than a good worker, or if she was described as being plain.

Because I think that tells us a lot, like why should Eva's life be less valuable just because she isn't young and good looking? What does it say about how we value people in society if we only value people who are hard workers, who are good at their job? Isn't that really interesting that if we think that Eva would be less sympathetic if she was not a good worker, then we're saying that as society we value, we think people who are hard workers are just better people who are more deserving of our sympathy, of our care than others.

I think it really starts to allow us to think about us as the audience as not being that different or that dissimilar to the Birling characters, and should hopefully encourage us to reflect on our own biases and the role that we play in helping form these expectations as of class and gender in society.

Really challenging thing to think about there, but well done for giving that discussion a ago.

All right, true or false, through the other characters, Priestley presents Eva as someone who is valued merely for her labour and her appearance/ Is that true or false? What do you think? Pause video, have a think, and remember to think about why.

Well done if you said that was true.

Why might you have said that? Well, Priestley reveals that societal attitudes reduce women to their looks and economic worth.

And we see this particularly through the character of Mr. Birling, who describes Eva as good looking and a good worker.

Okay, again just underlying this idea that people's value in society, particularly women, was often to do with their looks and their economic worth.

Right, onto our final task then in today's lesson, I would like you to read an extract from "Inspector Calls" from Act 1.

This is page 19, where the Inspector says, "Yes," to page 20, where Sheila says, "Yes?" These page numbers are references to the Heinemann version of "An Inspector Calls." Of course, if you have a different copy, you will have to find this extract yourself.

I want you to answer the following questions please.

How does Priestley present Eva as a victim of societal expectations? And how does Priestley construct/create Eva as a sympathetic character? I want you to make sure you are using quotations from the extract and the play as a whole to support your ideas.

All right, we've had some fantastic discussions today.

You've really thought deeply about the character of Eva and what we as an audience learn about her.

Now, I want you to bring this all together in your responses here.

Pause video, give this a go.

Good luck.

Okay, welcome back.

I want to take us a moment now before we finish today's lesson to reflect on our answers, and we're gonna reread and discuss the following questions.

Have you explained how Eva's situation shows the impact of society on her? Have you discussed how Priestley makes Eva a character we feel sorry for? Have you connected Eva's story to the themes of class and social responsibility? And have you used really specific quotations effectively to support your points? All right, take a moment to reflect on your work before wrapping up today's lesson.

Pause the video and press Play when you're ready to continue.

Really fantastic work today.

It is been an honour learning alongside you and just listening to such brilliant ideas and nuanced ideas.

On the screen, you can see a summary of everything we've covered in today's lesson.

We've talked about how Eva represents working-class women.

She really symbolises their struggles with class, gender, and inequality.

We've also talked about how she's an absence presence.

It's kind of this paradox, which really emphasises her duel role as both a powerless victim, but also this powerful symbolic critique of society.

We know Priestley constructs Eva's character through the attitudes of language of others.

So she's kind of constructed both as a character in her own right by Priestley, but through the other characters, which tells us a lot about them and their views.

She's constructed as a victim of societal expectations, and arguably Priestley constructs Eva as a sympathetic character because he really wants to invoke a specific response from his audiences.

Great job today.

You've done really, really well, and I do hope to see you in one of our lessons again soon.

Have a great day with the rest of your day, however you choose to spend it.

Bye-bye now.